Native Guard: A Photographic History
of Ship Island's African American Regiment
Exhibition located at the Pleasant Reed Interpretive Center on the Ohr-O'Keefe Campus
Ohr-O'Keefe Native Guard Exhibit On Loan to African American Military Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island's African American Regiment will be shown at the African American Military History Museum in Hattiesburg, Mississippi from February 1, 2010-February 28, 2010.
"...Thank God it hath been my fortune to be a participant in the grand idea of proclaiming freedom to this much abused & tortured race. Thank God my Regiment an African one, that I have been permitted to assemble them under the banner of freedom to do and die for their country & liberty—The 2d Louisiana Regiment of Native Guards will yet have a name in history..."
The Civil War Diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels
Sunday, March 29th 1863
The Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island's African American Regiment features original photographs from the collection of C.P.(Kitty) Weaver of Massachusetts and Isiah Edwards of Long Beach, Mississippi.
Excerpts from Colonel Nathan W. Daniels Diary are reprinted from: C.P. Weaver, editor. Thank God My Regiment an African One: The Civil War Diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
|
|
|
|
Click here to view enlarged images...
(This opens a new window. Close window to return)
All material displayed or broadcasted from this website are under strict copyright regulations.
Copyright 2009 Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art - All Rights Reserved
The Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island's African American Regiment records the history of the 2nd Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards serving for the Union at Ship Island in the Mississippi Sound. Over 180,000 African Americans served during the Civil War. Despite discouragement, thousands of black men enlisted in the Union and Confederate armies, including what would become Ship Island's 2nd Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards. Like all soldiers, these men fought not just the dangers of the battlefield, but also the dangers of disease and confi nement in camp. Inferior equipment and pay were common experiences. Black offi cers in both armies faced discrimination by white offi cers. Rather than trust untested regiments, white generals often sent African American troops not into battle, but to perform manual labor or to defend remote outposts such as Ship Island, Mississippi.
The Louisiana Native Guards began as a Confederate regiment of free black men on January 12, 1863, when Colonel Daniels and the 2nd Louisiana Native Guards landed on Ship Island. In New Orleans prior to the fall to Union forces, Confederate troops fled the area leaving black regiments behind to informally dismantle. Desperate for more forces and without reinforcements, Union commander Benjamin F. Butler made a public call to bring the black Confederate forces out to fight for the Union Army. In September of 1862 the Union Army under the command of Butler mustered in the fi rst Union regiment of the Native Guards.
The photographs in this exhibition come from the diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels in the collection of C.P. (Kitty) Weaver of Massachusetts. Colonel Nathan W. Daniels was a white officer in the Union Army who commanded the 2nd Regiment of the Louisiana Native Guards at Ship Island and fought for the rights and freedoms of African American s after the war. The diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels begins May 1, 1862 and continues until after the Civil War and provides a rare look into the black military experience through the eyes of a white offi cer. After the Civil War, Daniels continued to work to "¦inaugurate a system whereby the nation may extend to the negroes the protection and education that is due them as citizens of their Great Republic: (July 20, 1864). Colonel Nathan W. Daniels died in New Orleans on October 2, 1867. Colonel Daniels included photographs within the text of his diary to record his time with the 2nd Regiment of Louisiana Native Guards on Ship Island.
Each photograph from the diary is accompanied by Colonel Daniels, caption and description along with the date the photograph and caption were recorded.
Click here to purchase books relative to the Native Guard...
The Native Guard: A Photographic History of Ship Island's African American Regiment features original photographs from the collection of C.P. (Kitty) Weaver of Massachusetts and Isiah Edwards of Long Beach, Mississippi. Excerpts from Colonel Nathan W. Daniels Diary are reprinted from: C.P. Weaver, editor. Thank God My Regiment an African One: The Civil War Diary of Colonel Nathan W. Daniels. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1998.
